CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician
Crippled: Austerity and the Demonisation of Disabled People
by Frances Ryan
(Verso, £12.99)
IN GIVING a voice to millions of disabled people, Frances Ryan’s Crippled is urgent and essential reading.
It provides comprehensive statistical evidence demonstrating that disabled people have been disastrously and disproportionately affected by the last decade of public spending cuts, combined with interviews and case studies showing just how badly our society is failing.
Plans to delay access to the universal credit health element until age 22 have triggered fierce opposition from disabled people’s groups, who warn it would deepen poverty and entrench discrimination against young disabled people under the guise of ‘encouraging work.’ DYLAN MURPHY reports
In the current climate, it is vital to bust the myths and put forward the case for a humane and decent social security system that supports people, argues FRAN HEATHCOTE
GEOFF BOTTOMS, who has worked in a palliative care hospice for 11 years, argues the postcode lottery for proper end-of-life care must be ended to give the terminally ill choice and agency


